What was meant as a heartwarming tale of forgiveness turned into a debate over why such a courtesy was extended. On “Megyn Kelly Today” Tuesday, Dec. 26, the host featured a Black man who was wrongly jailed on a drugs charge by a narcotics officer. In perhaps a surprising move, the innocent man forgave the cop but not with the approval of those at home.
Jameel McGee was falsely arrested by Andrew Collins in 2005 in Benton Harbor, Mich., after Collins planted crack cocaine on McGee. The officer admitted he falsified a police report even when the FBI called and said that McGee was the wrong man.
“It’s the power of a police officer,” Collins said. “One man’s word can wreck an entire man’s life.
“One of my main goals was to be the top cop in not only the county but the state,” he added. “I was willing to lie on any report if that were going to advance my career.”
McGee was sentenced to 10 months in prison and three years after his wrongful arrest, he was released as Collins was arrested for drug possession. Collins served eighteen months in federal prison.
Yet the two managed to turn their relationship around years later. Together they wrote the book called “Convicted” about their “unlikely journey of friendship and forgiveness.”
“I wanted something different, I wanted to be able to give something different for my son to look up to,” McGee says of the child he waited three years to meet due to his false arrest. “It was a process … it took years to get to this point [of forgiveness].”
Collins admitted that the reaction to the story from the Black community is mixed with people thinking the ex-cop should have gotten more jail time and that McGee “forgives too easily and that’s the problem” with Black people.
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As it turns out, that same reaction poured out online.
People questioned McGee’s forgiveness of Collins.
Some made references to the racial satirical thriller, “Get Out.”
Get Out.
— JC Lyles (@76CarolsGirl) December 26, 2017
Others lashed out at Megyn Kelly for her history with Black men during her time on Fox News.
Why didn’t @megynkelly explain to the nice black man how she worked for years @foxnews to make white people hate black people? Why didn’t she bring on her frequent guest, Mark Fuhrman, so he could use the N-word while describing her black guests? #RacistMegyn pic.twitter.com/0ewzD7dg56
— Sweet Jesus (@sweetJ96) December 26, 2017
Yet a few applauded McGee for opening his heart.
